Sony Announces Powerful PlayStation 4 Pro with Enhanced PSVR Support

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At a special event in New York today, Sony took to the stage to introduce it’s long rumoured, more powerful console, previously referred to as ‘Neo’ – it’s called PlayStation 4 Pro and it’ll have some interesting enhancements for the forthcoming PlayStation VR headset.

We’re just a few weeks away from Sony’s release of its first virtual reality headset, the PSVR, on October 13th. And now, Sony have announced that their much rumoured upgraded PlayStation 4 model is on it’s way but that it has enhanced support for PSVR.

What does this mean for forthcoming VR titles? On stage Sony’s Mark Cerny, gave examples of developers choosing what to boost once running on a PS4 Pro console. Increased Super Sampling, higher frame rates and enhanced world detail too are just some of the choices available.

One example in particular was shown running, this was Farpoint the new FPS title from developers Impulse Gear which Cerny stated had seen its image quality made ‘crisper’ for released on the PS4 Pro console and PSVR.

Technical details on the PS4 Pro are a little slim right now, but Cerny did state that it included AMD Polaris GPU tech and included a boosted clock rate. Interestingly though, the words used to describe the console’s raw power were cautious when it comes to native, 4k with Cerny choosing the statement “impressively close to the potential of 4k” to describe the pixels flowing forth from the new PS4 Pro.

Seems neat, but I do wonder how the support for VR will pan out. PC wise the market is there, but the cost keeps many away. Very curious to see where this will go.

FuckPCusers

PC has no market. 18mil users compared to 46mil in ps. PSVR>>>>>>>>>

Jim Cherry

lol psvr has no market 1billion android vr ready smartphones ;}

Marc

You might want to not look like an idiot and actually state which smart phones are actually capable of minimum VR i.e. GearVR (Note 4, S6, S7) Im pretty sure its not where close to a billion.

Bryan Ischo

It’s pretty clear he was joking, look at the smiley at the end of his sentence. Idiot indeed …

Jim Cherry

I was joking. If the argument is PS4 VR will live while PC VR dies because of addressable market size one should remember there’s always a bigger market.

Ole Albers

I get your point but the PSVR has a fair price that could work on the market for a quality that is close enough to Rift & Hive to be an alternative.
In addition, the amount of games available (soon) seems to be a killer for Sony.

Cardboard on the other hand is a cheap fun for 10 Bucks. It is amazingly awesome for that price but still a complete different league.

I am not absolutely sure, PSVR will live on for a long time or the complete technology will just die like 3D-TVs did. But the PC devices will surely die first :)

So like a $1000 with the Playstation Pro. Not bad, certainly compared with a PC+Rift/Vive. I wonder if that price will come down much in a bundle, or if they’ll just include a value-add to sweeten the deal; $1000 still seems steep for the average consumer.

Ole Albers

I personally like the gap. So I can play a few months and decide if I like vr enough to buy a bigger console. (my current tv would not really benefit)

And in case it wasn’t clear … I wasn’t implying that you are an idiot when I said “idiot indeed”. I was trying to imply that if anyone is an idiot, it’s the guy who jumped on you for making a joke. But I’d really prefer not to call anyone an idiot.

DiGiCT Ltd

Phone models are getting much better.
With the more stable vulcan upcoming GPU api you can do some nicce stuff on a phone or standalone mobile android HMD.
Also Android N has huge performance upgrades for VR.

PSVR is not that much better in graphics as a phone, at least not that large.

PC based is the best way IMHO as you dont need to change your HMD but rather your PC parts upgrade to get better renders out of your game.

Consoles and phones dont have those options at all.
They are cheaper beacuse you have no option than rather replace the entire system when the time comes.

He is right, not becuase its the best VR device but it is more usefull as you also can use it as phone and also as a screen for playing non vr games.

Most games are mobile games, not because they are good, just because the device is offering more functionality in total.

I certainly wouldn’t underestimate Cardboard’s ability to give someone an understanding of what VR is and the significance it represents as a low end gateway to consumers.

sntxrrr

18mil users? Where did you pull that out of? There are at least 125mil active Steam users.
More importantly, will there be more than a few million VR users in the near term for any platform? That would help persuade more game devs to create games and push the medium forwards.

So true. Brain fart. For some reason thought only the Pro worked with PSVR, like the rumors about Xbone Scorpio and Rift. Present me looks at past me dissaprovingly. Past me shrugs his shoulders.

TheTruth

past me, present me and future me thinks you’re confused because you wanted to try and win the debate by making a petty comment then backed out by editing your post realising that it’s actually YOU that was rude and childish.

past, present and future you now is trying to come up with something sly to reply with but then you realise how petty that is then you all give up. (n_n)

No, I was just wrong, and you are rude, and childish, I just like to avoid ad hominem attacks when possible, and I thought I’d give you a second chance to act like an adult. Apparently you, like myself, either have email alerts or were on the page so my attempt at first round diplomacy failed.

EDIT: For those interested, and in the spirit of transparency, I had originally stated that both present me and past me found “TheTruth” rude and childish

TheTruth

I was rude and childish by saying “is that the best you can do? what a waste of time” but you are the rude one for challenging me in the first place. if you’re rude then expect rudeness back. I stated a fact and without actually doing any research you replied back out of personal feelings. if that reply was of sound mind you would of questioned yourself before posting.

like I said if you reply to me in a certain way you’ll get the same type of reply back

Your original comment was sassy, bordering on snark. My first reply to you was feedback on this, I felt matching in tone, possibly a mild elevation with my sweet period lol period like g’dam boss checkmate at the end. Followed by, unfortunately, faceplant.

Your comment back was shots fired. To me, at least. Telling someone they’re a waste of time will generally never go over well for you though. Maybe it’s because I was wrong and you smelled blood, but either way asshat move from where I’m sitting.

I looked on the rest of the page and you were pretty much spreading the dickcheese on thick all over the place from what I saw, so when I responded I thought I’d call you on it.

Once I pressed send I realized you’d only spewed hate directly at me once instead of twice like my gut told me since your original comment wasn’t to me, and thought I’d like to see what you’d do with a second chance to escalate or not – but, we never got to see that particular roll of the die; perhaps if you had taken my retraction as compromise instead of more blood in the water we could’ve received an approximation.

Not to be, so here we are – it doesn’t seem like a total loss yet, but I’m not taking my troops out of formation either. My messenger has been sent; if he comes back with his head I guess we’ll see what he says.

TheTruth

this is where you failed

“Telling someone they’re a waste of time”

I didn’t say YOU personally are a waste of time, I said your comment was a waste of time due to the nature of it’s wrongness lol I don’t know you, don’t take it personally.

btw looking at semi related comments to reinforce transferences is a common practice. you realised and were honest that you did that; that’s fantastic. don’t beat yourself up about it (n_n)

Look, attempting fruitful psychoanalysis on a tech forum at 4am may be a bit like trying to prove n=np with an abacus. Even if the proper diagnosis was as common as transference, Freud himself might find his tools reduced to a stick and some sand on a rainy day when faced with such lack of information. I encourage you to doubt your assumptions.

In your case there seems to be a guiding belief that my error was caused by some anger, or essential “butthurtness” if you will, at your threatening my patriotism to particular VR platforms? I assure you I have no allegiances in this regard. I’m sitting at least the first generation out with a hopeful bemusement at what the future may hold, though I do own the curiosity that is the Innovator edition of Gear. If anything, my rashness was spurred by what I identified as supreme cleverness in my retort.

On my end, I will always find further information about the person I’m talking to helpful, whether that’s other posts on the same page, or their profile page, the more information the better, to get a sense of who I’m talking to. Here all I had to go on was the few comments you left, all of which you came in hot from the start, with some fresh-whipped sass quickly elevating to ad hominems like “waste of time”, and “you’re bad at this”.

Stating things like this of a person’s thoughts is tantamount to personality attack as we are each but a collection of our thoughts. It makes no difference if you were actually right as every person acts with such conviction only the spirit of their countenance matters.

TheTruth

“2% have VR ready machines lol”

this was my FIRST msg in reply to (not you) which was fact based and maybe (I suppose) “cheeky” due to the fact I added “lol” at the end. WOW “lol” seems to have so much power. or is the problem deeper than that? it seems more like the real problem is the power of the fact “2% have VR ready machines” which conflicted with your interests.

YOU came in with “0% of console owners have VR ready machines. Lol.” with which you tried to use to over power my statement with the additional “. Lol.” so it’s actually YOU who attacked first; I was merely stating a fact.

I placed truth into the discussion and you tried to counter my truth with misinformation. instead of admitting you were wrong and finishing there you instead try to write an essay on how you feel about the situation. just because you made a human error it doesn’t mean you lack intelligence; but your fumbling of holding the reins of public perception shows your lack of maturity (which is fine because we’re all learning here)

it’s good to exercise critical thinking skills but don’t get lost doing it. (n_n)

Yes, laughing out loud at people’s ideas is often powerful. I’ve already agreed that my fantasic “. Lol.” upped the cheek quotient. I didn’t see attack until the insults started flowing. I tried to be diplomatic but you rejected it. Your insistence that I care which VR platform has the most success is misguided.

TheTruth

after you upped the cheek quotient (my “lol” was actually more irony than cheeky anyway) you proceeded to call me childish and rude. YOU stepped into our discussion uninvited and suddenly you’re the victim? please stop trying to sound conscientious when you’re clearly displaying otherwise.

It’s an Internet forum I don’t need an invitation; you might as well be standing in a public square with megaphone – that’s the point of the entire thing.

I immediately retracted my comment on your personality to avoid conflict but you were so enamored with the idea that you had found yourself on higher ground that you decided to pounce as though my retraction was not a gesture of good faith, proceeding towards many dastardly hypotheses at my motivations, including infantile transference neurosis, blind patriotism to consumer electronic brands, and most recently that I’m a villain deliberately spreading misinformation?

If you’re actually interested in a resolution go back and read through the conversation. From what I can tell you’ve just been fumbling to place an imaginary cherry on top of your original victory by refusing to acknowledge the significance my retraction represented, then pushing forward to establish some pretty complex psychological disorders presenting themselves in my actions. I just called you rude.

TheTruth

you called me rude AND childish. which is why you’re having to write an essay to battle each of my paragraphs.

you know what, ok yeah I’m rude and childish, just like a lion and you got chomped now get lost lol

Now I’ve become a part of your sexual fantasies. It’s not my fault you can’t fight logic with logic, and instead obsess over domination.

TheTruth

I ended this a while back but you keep trying to dominate. you started the attempted domination and I ended it. so it should be ended here right? that would make everything even (which is what you want)

(n_n) <- this is mine now. I keep your pet. You don't want to know what I'm doing with it.

Joe Ruck

Wow that text battle between @Will and The Truth has to be the most NERDIEST battle of words i’ve ever read! It was equivalent to sheldon cooper and leonard going at it. What an EPIC long text conversation of pure nonsense. The internet is awesome.

Ben Laty

But that’s a low res screen so of course it is. Alot more pcs are compatible with headsets of the same resolution like osvr hdk1.3 or 1.4 and you can play all steamvr games with that. Also seeing as vr ready is 60fps on psvr compared to 90 on PC. Vr ready is different to vr compatible. You could have better or similar experiences on the ps4 as a vr compatible PC which is a lot lower spec than a vr ready PC.

sntxrrr

and 100% have upgradable machines lol

TheTruth

and 100% can go and pick up a console that costs less than it would cost to upgrade. you’re bad at this

sntxrrr

What? at making meaningless quibs that don’t hold water and missing the point? Oh noes, you got me!!!

TheTruth

damn right.

sntxrrr

Well, congratulations. You can have a cookie with your milk.

TheTruth

*eats cookie and drinks milk* (n_n)

Ben Laty

You can get a vr ready card for under $200 now

TheTruth

yeah I know which will work great with Oculus Rift due to their time warp

BUT a lot of people prefer VIVE and playing games on that is pretty inconsistent even on a 980ti amp extreme. most people will also have to get a good cpu for VR. they will have to cough up £750 for the VIVE or £750 for the rift with the Oculus Touch.

With no response I’m going to assume you mean “3D (non-stereoscopic) First Person Shooter”, in which case I would say this: I’m quite sure I could purchase the 386 PC necessary to play Wolfenstein for $200 long before 2005, or for that matter even the 486 for Doom, or the Pentium l for Quake.

entropy

In 1992, the year Wolfenstein 3D came out, a laptop capable of playing it would have cost about $4,000 in 2016 dollars.

OK, putting aside the fact that you picked a laptop, pound-for-pound the most expensive computing device available in 1992, and the link you provided doesn’t actually include specifications, that wasn’t what I said at all. The point is that long before 2005 I could buy a computer capable of running Wolfenstein 3D for $200. Probably even a laptop by 2000. Moore’s law and all that; every ~1.5 years peak dollar for performance doubles – after about 4 cycles of this (6 years), a $4,000 piece of equipment in 1992 could be offered for under $200 in 1998.

If you’ll excuse the anecdotal evidence, my family bought a 386 desktop(with 100MB HD) for abut $3,000 in 1989(~6,000 today), I remember it clearly because my mind was blown. By 1995 I was playing Quake on a friend’s Pentium l (with 1.2GB HD), that his family purchased from Dell for $1500(~$2500 today). His computer could’ve run 10 instances of Wolfenstein 3D in the background flawlessly – for less than half the price. This is what I’m talking about. Today you can buy a cell phone, pound for pound perfomance/$ even more expensive than a laptop, for $200 that could run circles around both of those devices duct-taped together, at lightspeed.

So, to restate, I will consider the VR market mature when I can purchase a VR headset and computer equivalent to today’s offerings for ~$300(maybe $400) combined. Basically when it becomes an impulse buy on the level of a standard current-gen gaming console.

DougP

Re: “Pro”
I do find that naming convention odd/ill-fitting here.

“Pro” indicating the likes of “professional use”. I get that for the likes of PCs, PC peripherals, tablets, or heck even phones.

Plus, Advanced, Enhanced, HD/VR/whatever could make sense.

But consumer gaming? Just seems weird.

Ole Albers

Think of “Pro Gamer” maybe.
(As: “Gamers who will throw their money to get the best device they want, no matter what”) :)

I’ve never found a “Pro” label on any product, Apple or otherwise, to be anything other than marketing speak for “top-of-the-range”. I’m not even sure what a professional tablet would be. What profession? Why does it need to be more powerful if used for work? Accountants really need the extra CPU cycles? It’s all pointless hyperbole come to shorthand.

In light of this, I hope you’ve contacted Nintendo in regards to this idea. If they offered a 3DS Pro I’d buy it. Can it have a 6″ screen? HDMI output? 4K camera? Detachable dual-stick controller screen with separately operable tablet? Yes please. F the NX I’m all about this 3DS Pro.

DougP

Tablet is one where is actually makes sense – drawing/graphics/presentation…. size/capabilities(pressure sensitive stylus/etc) beyond what any NOT-pro user would even want (purchase).

If you can’t understand the difference between a product which has a Pro use, is marketing for professional use/to professionals….vs a “gaming machine” – then not much more to say about it. You just prefer (/don’t mind) labels that are meaningless.
For me, it’s a pet peeve when companies do this stuff, distorting/diminishing the a word.
In a similar fashion – when every person who is injured/sick is labelled “a hero”, it diminishes & changes the meaning of the word.
In both cases (hero/pro) the media/corp is using the term to get attention, when it’s inappropriate & incorrect use.

Ah, but see – you strike at exactly my problem with the “Pro” label: a tablet is a nearly ubiquitous device, with almost as many uses as types of users. For someone to assume that the only Professional use of a tablet is graphic design is obtuse, and in any case the advantage in that profession will lie in the stylus, and apps, not anything under the hood.

The use of “Pro” only makes sense for a few, narrow categories where the use-case of a product is easily delineated between Professional and Consumer. For instance, construction tools, where it’s clear that a Professional will be getting the identical function from the product, but will receive significant benefit over the average consumer from the use of a more powerful, robustly built product with some extra design features to make constant use more comfortable.

Even this proper use of the term still strikes at the heart of my problem with it’s use though: in practice, it almost always comes to mean simply “the one you actually want”, and often comes to this state by reverse engineering the thing you actually want to make crappier versions of the thing in gradient to sell behind the top-of-the-line at pennies-on-the-dollar difference to production but significant margin changes at retail.

DougP

Ah, but see –
Re: “tablet is a nearly ubiquitous device, with almost as many uses as types
of users. For someone to assume that the only Professional use of a
tablet”

I spoke ONLY of using “Pro” on the “Pro”(fessional) version of a tablet. The “nearly ubiquitous device” users DON’T buy/want the Pro version. A professional, for “Pro” use (again, you’re apparently completely ignoring my points) such as graphic design/presentation/etc …would NOT buy the “ubiquitous device” (mass market/consumer) version.

I realize that you’re probably being intentionally obtuse with your commentary, but when there’s a professional USE for product & it’s marketed & will be almost universally purchased by Pros/for Pros, “Pro” labelling makes sense.

My point is there are millions of professionals who use tablets daily for work, and only a small fraction of them are graphic designers. Even graphic designers only require a stylus, not a special tablet. If their target with the “Pro” label is actually graphic designers, and not the 99% of other people who will buy it, then they should modify to “Graphic Pro”, or “Design Pro”; but it’s not. As someone else pointed out, there are of course Professional gamers one could argue the PS4 Pro is aimed at, but we all know it’s in fact the other 99% of consumers that they target.

I’m obtuse by nature, not choice.

DougP

I get what you’re saying. And realize that there are plenty of examples the “Pro” is misused.
My point can be summed up with:
Two wrongs don’t make a right
Apple’s probably the worst offended with X-Pro product (mis-?)labelling.
For example: I don’t have much of an issue with say their 12.x in table as “Pro”, as hardly any non-pro/mass market consumers would buy that version. Or say a fancy version w/pressure sensitive stylus & other physical features a “pro” user would purchase.

However, at least (weak defence here) a reasonable/measurable % of people buying (into?) “Pro” Apple products, actually ARE professionals shopping for “pro” use.
A computer/tablet/even phone have professional uses.
The same cannot be said for Sony’s “Pro” GAMING device.

[Mom voice] “Apple did it, so it’s ok?! So if Apple jumped off a cliff, Sony, would you jump off too?”

I think the name betrays the primary aim of this console, to please the hardcore gamers. Many games on console only play around 1080p @ 30fps which is pretty lousy for action games. 1080 @ 60fps should be easy on this machine (and maybe a little bit of 4K @ 30fps gaming as well)
It aligns nicely with better VR performance but I think Sony expects the hardcore gamers to justify this new console’s introduction.

DougP

Re: “name betrays the primary aim of this console”
99.x% of the users this console is targeted at will have nothing to do with “pro”-fessional use.
It’s a gaming device.
Is there some tiny, miniscule fraction who will make money on some network streaming? Perhaps, but not a negligible % to warrant “pro” in the naming convention.
Seems silly.

sntxrrr

No, but I think a very large percentage of the competitive online gamers would like to be pro-gamers. They won’t be but at least they can buy a “pro” console. The same way pro gaming gear is marketed for pc gamers. I think it’s effective marketing.

DougP

Re: “very large percentage”
Don’t buy it. It will not be a very large percentage who buy this (it’s marketed towards) who either: 1) would like to be 2) imagine they’ll ever be
There might be *some* minuscule % who are delusional…but still doesn’t make sense for marketing.

Re: “would like to be”
So even for that small % – liking/wanting something doesn’t make it so.

I just don’t think that:
1) that many people are delusional
2) Sony’s marketing this to such a tiny % of the population

Next up will be the “Pro” launch of this product (for those who would like to become “pros”):

sntxrrr

1) it’s not about being delusional. It’s more about getting the best performance out of your gear.
Just look at the rigs hardcore pc gamers go for. Even Intel targets their top CPUs to this crowd, unlocking them for easy overclocking. Sony is doing a similar thing here.
2) Sony has always targeted the hardcore gamer. Very different from Microsoft who targeted more casual and media use at the Xbone launch and that hurt them plenty. Microsoft is not making that mistake again with their new console next year.

DougP

Re: “not about being delusional.”
I say it would be delusional if a *majority* of the people Sony’s target marketing with that console want/hope/dream they’ll somehow be a “pro gamer”. I don’t think even a large *minority* who they want to sell that console to would think that.

Re: “Sony has always targeted the hardcore gamer”
Ok, now that’s just ridiculous.
MS built a much higher powered gaming box with the 1st Xbox (compared to PS2), in attempts to attract “hardcore” PC gamers to the console market.

If you made the comparison with the likes of Nintendo, fair enough. But saying that about MS is just silly.

sntxrrr

“it would be delusional if..” I can agree with that. I tried to explain that I meant more “like” a pro gamer and more akin to the similar marketing of high end products to pc gamers.

“MS built a much higher powered gaming box with the 1st Xbox..” You are right on the nose with that one but I was talking about the third generation Xbox One. With the controversial included Kinect. They clearly wanted to steal casual players from the extremely successful Wii.

DougP

Understood & agree on both points.
Not to belabour this further…it just does seem a silly branding, but I get the reasons behind it.

Pet peeve of mine is misuse of language, like this, where it totally changes the *meaning*.
Words *mean* things & so often the media & major corporations distort / dilute them.

sntxrrr

I haven’t expressed my opinion about the name yet. Guess what? I kinda agree, it is a bit silly. ;-)

yag

Naming a console “pro” sounds dumb to me, indeed.

DiGiCT Ltd

Good to see they offer a new updated version.
Might just go to buy this one instead for development.
The part i dont see is if you still need to buy the PSVR with that additional box for this version or not.
If that did not change it means PS4 old model will have some issues with certain VR titles on performance.